Metro News & Reviews

Transportation headlines, Thursday, August 23

Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the Library’sHeadlines blog, which you can also access viaemail subscriptionor RSS feed.

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County Supervisor and Metro Board Member Zev Yaroslavsky announced this morning that he will not run for mayor of Los Angeles in 2013, choosing instead to focus on his final 27 months representing the county’s third district. Of course, Yaroslavsky has a long history of dealing with transportation issues as a Metro Board Member whereas the four leading candidates for mayor — Councilman Eric Garcetti, Controller Wendy Greuel, Councilwoman Jan Perry and Kevin James — have never served on the Metro Board. For those keeping score at home, Greuel is the first to seek Yaroslavsky’s endorsement by quickly issuing a statement this morning praising his service.

A proposal by a Silicon Valley business group to reform the state law governing environmental studies in the state was poorly received by 33 Democrats in the Legislature, who ask Assembly Speaker John Perez in a letter to resist any attempts to change the law. What’s going on here? Likely two things: no one wants to anger environmental organizations that use CEQA to tie up projects that are controversial and there’s a cottage industry of people who make a living off environmental studies that drag on forever.

Now, six years after the Bloomberg administration began its controversial campaign to edit the city’s streetscape, adding 255 miles of bicycle lanes onto streets previously dedicated to automobiles, a hard-fought acceptance for the lanes may finally be at hand.

When asked simply whether the bike lanes were a good idea or a bad idea, 66 percent of New Yorkers said they were a good idea, according to a new poll by The New York Times. A majority in all boroughs said they thought the lanes were a good idea, with support highest in Manhattan.

Twenty-seven percent of residents called the lanes a bad idea, and 7 percent had no opinion or did not answer.

Interestingly, some people who say they support the lanes also say that they rarely, if ever, use them. And the city’s planned bike-sharing network doesn’t seem to be drawing much interest from anyone.

Bike lanes are a prudent investment in the future. Did the NY subways handle the full capacity of riders right away? When there’s an oil crisis, or an embargo, or a power failure, you can bet those bike lanes will be full, people will get around the city and the crisis will be a little less critical.